


The Dragon Watching Over My Shoulder

by BrownieFox



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Destinies, Gen, Kinda, Soulmate AU, ish, soulmark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 07:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16013030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownieFox/pseuds/BrownieFox
Summary: Callum was born with a white dragon on his shoulder blades and a destiny that stretched higher than an eye could see.





	1. Chapter 1

When Callum first met King Harrow, he had clutched his mom’s leg, trying to hide from the tall and intimidating man that his mother greeted like an old friend. Which they apparently were. He talked to her for a while, and then he squatted down to little Callum’s eye level, arms resting on his legs. Callum’s mom was talking to some other tall and intimidating dude, and so while the little boy still had her legs to hide behind, she wasn’t going to be able to get him out of talking to the King. 

“Hey there little guy.” King Harrow smiled, soft and kind. “I’m Harrow. What’s your name?” He extended a hand, but kept it a respectable distance away from Callum. Callum looked at the hand with wide eyes, looking between it and the mans face for a good long while before hesitantly reaching out and grabbing it. He was met with rough calluses and strong muscles that gently closed around Callum’s hand. 

“... Callum.” He answered after a long while. The King’s smiler grew warmer at the reply, eyes crinkling with the smile. 

“What a great name.” Callum ducked his head at the compliment. 

“We’ll take a look at it, if you want.” The man talking to Callum’s mom said, the first thing that Callum had actually caught. 

“Thank you.” His mom said and looked down at Callum. She wiggled her fingers and he grabbed her hand. The King stood back up, and Callum walked with them to some room. His mother lifted him up and set him on a table, his legs dangling off the edge. She reached down and helped him pull off his shirt. Callum hugged his arms to his chest as the King and the other guy got to an angle where they could see his back. 

“An interesting mark.” The second man commented as a hand ghosted over Callum’s back and he hugged himself tighter. He knew he should be used to people staring at it, and yet he never was. 

“Big too.” The King sounded almost worried, a hand tracing the the mark’s path down his lower back. “The shape its taken is… worrying.”

Destiny Marks were rare. Even as young as he was, Callum knew that. What the King said wasn’t surprising either. Every physician or doctor that saw it said the same thing. Callum himself had spent years craning his neck in front of a mirror, trying to get a good view of his own back, wanted to see the white dragon that so many talked about, whispered about, wondered about. 

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” The other man dismissed. “Not at his age, at least. We’ll just have to make sure that whatever his future holds, he can handle it. Raise him strong.”

oOo

Callum sat in King Harrow’s room. Viren was there too, looking over the outfit on the mannequin. 

“The seamstresses have really outdone themselves with this.” Viren admired. He was already dressed in fancy and official clothes, and Callum fidgeted in his own stiff, stuffy, and itchy uniform. He was young enough that he didn’t have to wear any of the decorative and heavy armor, at least. 

“Yes they have. I would want nothing less than the best for my wedding.” King Harrow hummed in agreement. He finally started to undress, and Callum shifted uncomfortably. His mom had told him spend some time with the King, his soon to be new father, before the wedding, but all he wanted was to still be with her. Since that wasn’t really an option though, Callum attempted to draw King Harrow’s uniform. His attention was soon drawn away, however, as the King’s undershirt was stripped off and Callum could see his bare arm.

Everybody in the kingdom was well aware that the King had a Destiny Mark, but it was a complete other thing to see it with your own eyes. The matte-green bird fluttered its wings and seemed to look Callum before circling the bicep gracefully. Callum had researched Destiny Marks, and he knew they moved when around other who you shared the mark with - a soulmate, as many books put it - and he marvelled at seeing it in action. It must be true then, that the King’s soulmate was his own mage, Viren.

The mark was soon covered up as King Harrow donned his wedding uniform. Callum tried in vain to swallow down the lump in his throat. 

oOo

For months, Callum’s back itches as his mark twitched about. Never when anybody was looking, unfortunately, but he knew it did. His soulmate had to be close, and he spent hours wandering around the castle, trying to find where the twitching happened most. He never found the source, besides that he happened most when he was around him mother. 

When Ezran was born, the mark’s wings fluttered strongly, tickling Callum’s back. Callum wasn’t bothered by it, though, looking at the little white lizard with equally small wings circling Ezran’s left leg. 

oOo

Rayla stalked behind the young human, swords drawn. She tried to ignore the odd sensation like something was crawling on her right wrist. It must just be because she wasn’t used to wearing something around her wrist. He stopped abruptly, shoulders, rolling.

“You know you can’t sneak up on my Ez.” He said as he turned around, freezing upon seeing. “... you’re… not who I thought you were.” 

Rayla surged forward.


	2. Chapter 2

“So… I guess we’re all soulmates then?” Callum was the first to speak. He was still shirtless, and he could feet some part of the dragon mark tickling around his neck. It, along with his pants, shoes, and socks were laid out to dry on a tree. Ezran had done the same, and his own mark was plain to see as it flew in circles around his calf. Neither of these things were a surprise, though. What was surprising was the small dragon mark that was flying around Rayla’s arm. Apparently it had stayed hidden mostly by her vambrace until now. 

“Soulmates?” Rayla’s nose wrinkled up a bit. “You don’t really think we’re destined to be romantically involved, do you? Especially you with your own brother?”

“What?!” Callum spluttered. “N-no! God, no of course not! But what else would you call… this?” Callum pointed to his shoulder, where he had last felt the tickling. There was no movement at the moment, but it would only be a matter of time. He’d gotten fairly used to the sensation, having spent so many years with Ezran nearby. Rayla, on the other hand, was gently scratching the area where her mark was. 

“Mahrche Avectoi.” Rayla replied, and Callum blinked at the foreign word.

“I’m sorry, come again?”

“Mahrche Avectoi.” Rayla repeat. She had stopped scratching her mark by now, though her hand still ghosted near it as if she was prepared to do so again at any moment. “It roughly translates to ‘The Ones Who Walk Your Hell’.”

“I think I like soulmates more.” Callum frowned at the meaning. 

“Yeah, me too.” Ezran agreed. “Soulmates don’t have to be romantic. Like dad and Viren, they’re soulmates but they’re not dating.” 

“Eh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Callum muttered. There was a rather big better pool going on with the soldiers about whether or not the two of them were together or just friends. “But yeah, soulmates just mean you’re like close and meant to be together.” 

“Fine, keep your ugly human word.” Rayla waved her hand as if to brush the word aside. “It’s all frills on what this really is anyway. We all have the same Destiny Mark, we’re meant to have the same fate. We’re destined to take this egg back to the queen.”

oOo

After the dragon king was killed and Rayla’s parents failed in their mission to guard the egg, the white dragon on her arm felt like a cruel joke. Like it was taunting her. So she looked at it, the mark that had once meant to her that she’d eventually take up her parents mission, and redefined it in her mind. 

Rayla decided her destiny was to avenge the dragon king and prince. 

She had hoped to find the other she was to carry this weight with in the group sent to kill the human King and heir. But the mark stayed still, wrapped around her arm as if it was sleeping. She was glad her vambrace covered most of it. At a young age, she’d grown tired of the stares and the questions.

When Rayla saw the dragon egg, she redefined her destiny again. An elf of a disgraced family and two human princes presenting it back to the dragon queen. The perfect solution to the war. As they began their journey, her wrist itched, the skin prickling up with goosebumps as if a feather was being dragged across it. The sensation, however, was negligible compared to the ever-tightening of the band on her left wrist, so she didn’t give it much mind.

That was, until after the fight against the river monster, as the boys dried off their clothes (she hadn’t followed suit, much to all of their comfort; her clothes were designed to dry quickly anyway) and she watched the white dragon circle around Callum’s ribcage before settling on his back, head resting around his neck. Ezran’s matching one had settled with its head on his foot, almost like it was sleeping. Rayla had never seen a Destiny Mark move before, though she’d heard of it before, but there it was right before her eyes.

“It’s rude to stare.” Callum blushed, hand rubbing his neck and coincidentally the dragon’s head. That was when Rayla removed her vambrace, hardly breathing as the material fell away and revealing the matching marking that was curled tightly around her arm but moved, as if knowing that now there were eyes on it. 

She had finally found her Mahrche Avectoi. They were dangerous, hard to trust humans. But they were hers and no matter what, their futures were tied together.


End file.
